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oriole

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Orieles
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o⋅ri⋅ole

  [awr-ee-ohl, ohr-]
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–noun
1. any of several usually brightly colored, passerine birds of the family Oriolidae, of the Old World. Compare golden oriole.
2. any of several brightly colored passerine birds of the family Icteridae, of the New World.

Origin:
1770–80; < F oriol, OF < ML oriolus, var. of L aureolus golden, equiv. to aure(us) golden (deriv. of aurum gold) + -olus -ole 1
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Orieles
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o·ri·ole   (ôr'ē-ōl', ōr'-)   
n.  

  1. Any of various Old World passerine birds of the family Oriolidae, of which the males are characteristically black and bright yellow or orange.

  2. Any of various similar New World birds of the family Icteridae.


[Obsolete French oriol, from Old French, from Latin aureolus, diminutive of aureus, golden, from aurum, gold.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

oriole 
1776, from Fr. oriol, O.Prov. auriol, from L. aureolus "golden," from PIE *aus- "gold." Originally in ref. to the Golden Oriole (Oriolus galbula), a bird of black and yellow plumage that summers in Europe (but is uncommon in England). Applied from 1791 to the unrelated but similarly colored Amer. species Icterus baltimore.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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